


Midnight Show

by chromestorm



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, Gen, One-Sided Attraction, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-03-02 06:13:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2802467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chromestorm/pseuds/chromestorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It happens again. And again. And then again, and then Sameen really doesn’t know anymore because she’s lost count of how many times it’s happened by now and her neighbour’s timing always seems a little too good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Midnight Show

**Author's Note:**

  * For [andymcnope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/andymcnope/gifts).



> alternate titles include: every step you take (i'll be watching you), and Night Vision Binoculars.
> 
> thanks to twit for checking up on me every other hour to see if i've added another word or sentence to this. also, thank you to penny the cat.
> 
> apologies to fey if this is not what you were hoping for (it isn't QUITE roommates au. ...streetmates au instead? SORRY), but i hope you end up liking it anyway...

i.

The first time it happens, she’s in the middle of setting up curtains for the bay window in her new place on campus. It isn’t exactly dark out, but it’s late enough in the day to be able to notice shadows filtering through windows and she’s propped up on the seating, arms stretched over her head to attach the curtain rod to the brackets when she notices a flash of movement coming from the house across the street. The distraction is enough that she pauses her work to look over.

Her neighbour’s place doesn’t seem to have curtains or blinds installed either, but it also isn’t very well lit and from where she’s standing Sameen can’t see much. Still, she’s fairly certain that she can just about make out a person walking around inside. She squints a little to try and get a better look before she realizes that the room she’s in is fully lit and that if her neighbour chanced to look outside then she would have no way of explaining why they’d just caught her in the act of spying.

She shakes her head at herself and turns her attention back to installing her curtain. Just when she’s about to get the first bracket attached, a light from the room she had just been peering into all of a sudden flashes on and—

—and she blinks and is taken aback for all of two seconds before rolling her eyes, because seriously? Who the hell thinks it would be a good idea to turn on the lights to a living room without any blinds and walk around in nothing but her lingerie?

(Her very attractive neighbour, evidently. But she hadn’t fully processed that at the time.)

 

ii.

It happens a second time two days later and when it does, Sameen really doesn’t think her neighbour’s timing could be any worse. It just so happens that she has John over, and what had started out to be a day meant to be spent forcing him to help lug things around had eventually turned into your average University student’s pizza dinner when everything was all said and done.

As soon as the buzzer rings, Sameen wastes no time in leaving John to himself and rushing to the food. She pays for it quickly, sending the delivery boy away with a brisk ‘thanks,’ and sets the pizza box down on the kitchen table. Snatching herself the biggest slice, she makes her way over back to the living room where she sees John rummaging through the room looking for something.

Sameen’s mouth is half full when she starts, “what?”

“Your TV from the 90’s come with a remote?”

She glares at him but otherwise ignores the remark, walking past forcefully to bend down and pull out the drawer in her window seat. After grabbing the remote control from inside, Sameen stands up only to immediately regret it when she’s faced with another eyeful of her neighbour’s bare skin through the window.

Unamused, she narrows her eyes. This time, at least, her neighbour had gotten the sense to put up some curtains—even if the ones she picked out were practically translucent—and at least she isn’t walking around the house half-naked flaunting herself for the entire street to see.

Instead, she’s sitting down in what Sameen presumes to be her bedroom, a lamp from somewhere in front of her suffusing the room in a warm light as she bends over a very long and very bare leg folded in front of her on the bed. It occurs to Sameen then that the black short shorts along with the open, loose blouse that her neighbour has conveniently chosen to adopt as night-attire (although, could those even be _called_ short shorts anymore?) aren’t actually doing all that much of a better job of _not_ exposing her compared to what she had been wearing the last time she saw her.

Sameen sighs at the ridiculousness of it all.

She senses movement coming from behind her a second later and she wants to slap herself for getting distracted by her neighbour yet _again_. She tries to turn around quickly in the hopes of avoiding John’s questions that she can already see coming her way but he gets to her side just a moment too soon, smirking knowingly out the window.

“There any reason why you’re taking such an active interest in spying on your…” John trails off and Sameen can feel her patience waning away as the grin on his face stretches wider. “…neighbour painting her nails?”

She tears herself from the scene, letting out a disgusted sound directed at him. “Here,” She grumbles and shoves the remote at his chest. Storming back into the kitchen, she adds, “now shut up eat some damn pizza before I change my mind.”

(She almost wants to say yes. She has eyes after all and she’s not blind.)

 

iii.

Later, when she’s about to close the windows and turn in for the night, she notices the woman from across the street doing the same. Sameen frowns and stops what she’s doing for a moment to check the time.

_1:30 AM._

She looks back up just in time to catch the other woman reaching for the string to her blinds, her wavy chestnut hair and unbuttoned blouse coming half-off her shoulder in the process to reveal more of her pale skin. And more of her chest. And torso.

Really, just more of her upper body in general.

A very fit, well-defined upper body, too, from the looks of it. And it’s not like Sameen hasn’t already seen her wear even less clothing, but this time she’s oddly more receptive to the idea of…appreciating. Not staring.

She blames it on the late hour.

The last thing she thinks before the blinds close and the lights in her neighbour’s place goes off is that the other woman’s black bra really, really stands out and suits her. Because of her pale skin, of course. And white blouse. Something about the contrasting colours.

Or something.

Sameen has to shake herself out of it a second later because, _no,_ she is _not_ going to become that person who pervs on their neighbour across the street, no matter how nice of a body said neighbour might have. That’s just wrong and inappropriate and—just. No way.

She remembers the time and shuts the window harder than intended, frustrated at herself and the late hour and—other things—and God, it’s past one in the morning, why is that woman even still awake? Sameen at least doesn’t have morning classes and had the obligation of cleaning up after having company over, but what’s the other woman’s excuse?

 

iv.

At first, she chalks it up to her neighbour just really not giving a damn about other people seeing her in various states of undress.

But then it happens again. And again.

And then again, and then Sameen _really_ doesn’t know anymore because she’s lost count of how many times it’s happened by now and her neighbour’s timing always seems a little _too_ good.

So far, she’s caught her through the window in time for breakfast, after Sameen’s morning jogs around campus, during her breaks between classes, and—someone help her—for a few of her all-nighters. And always, _always_ with multiple articles of clothing conveniently off.

Or, as was the case one time, in the process of being _taken_ off. Which happened to be...an interesting sight.

It hits her over the course of the next few weeks that her neighbour could be doing this entire thing on purpose.

Oddly enough, the thought of that doesn’t really bother her as much as it just annoys her.

(And, yeah, that fact confuses Sameen a little bit so she chooses not to dwell too much on it.)

 

v.

"Thanks again for letting me crash, Sam," Cole says as he drops his bag on the floor next to her couch. He turns to her, continuing apologetically, "I've only got a couple things left to go over, so I won't be up much longer."

She just shrugs off his thanks. He had called her earlier and--to much of her delight--practically  _begged_ to spend the night. His reasoning being that he ended up forgetting about the time while frantically studying for an exam and got kicked out of the campus library as a result. Like the true nerd he was.

She had taken pity on the poor guy, then. He lived pretty far from campus and buses didn't run this late so she agreed on letting him stay for a night.

"Just remember you owe me for this."

Cole rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I heard you the first time. Look," he says, placing a hand over his chest in an exaggerated mock pledge. "I promise to get you the juiciest steak to ever grace New York." 

She scoffs, not even bothering to reply to that as she leaves the room to grab a spare blanket. Before she can get everything, though, she hears Cole cursing loudly from the living room.

"Oh— _Jesus_!" he yells, voice cracking with alarm.

Dropping the sheets, she rushes back to find Cole, cheeks flushed wildly red, with a finger pointed accusingly out the window. 

She doesn't even need to ask to know what just happened.

"Sam! Do—do you  _see_  this?" he practically shrieks at her and Sameen says nothing in response, choosing instead to wait Cole out until he calms down from his surprise but he seems to have other ideas when he calls her name out again. "Sam!"

"Uh—"

And before she can react, he has her arm in a tight grip, dragging her along to the window and—

"Cole, wait—" She protests.

He cuts her off with a shake of his head. "No way," he insists, "if I have to see this, then so do you!" 

"No, I—" But it's too late and now she's facing out the window unable to look away as her neighbour—dressed in nothing else but her stupid black lingerie yet again—unwraps a white towel from her wavy hair, still wet from presumably having just come out of the shower.

Her neighbour tilts her tall, lithe body to the side, oblivious to her two spectators as she brings the towel up again to dry her hair.  Sameen's mouth feels dry and she licks her lips to wet them and dammit Cole, why now why this  _why_.

She hears him muttering a pathetic "oh, no," from somewhere behind her, and she would turn around to ask about it but she finds herself too distracted by the sight of her neighbour flipping her hair all movie-style to dry the other side to really care.

"That's it. I'm scarred," he whines, frustrated. "How am I going to be able to study now?"

"What, never seen an undressed woman before, Cole?" she manages to joke, eyes still firmly trained across the street.

"No, Sam, you don't understand—" he cuts himself off and turns Sameen around, forcing her to tear her eyes away. He looks panicked and confused and disturbed all at once and Sameen can't fathom why when, seriously, it's just a woman and she isn't even fully naked so why is he acting like he'd just been forced to watch a porno with her?

She stares at Cole, watching and waiting as he struggles with his words until he finally, finally takes a breath and stares right at Sameen. He puts a hand on each of her shoulders and, enunciating his words carefully, he starts, "That woman—that's my TA!"

Sameen freezes at that and if she could panic at all, she thinks that now would be the perfect time for it. She doesn’t, though, but she can recognize an embarrassing situation for what it is and so she pulls her eyes away from Cole to stare at a corner of the room, trying to keep her face as neutral as possible.

Cole must have seen something in her expression, though, because after a pause he moves back into her line of sight with a frown on his face. “Oh, my _God!_ ” He complains loudly, his voice going high-pitched in disbelief. “You’ve been creeping on my TA all this time?”

And now she’s annoyed because why the hell does she have to defend herself from a guest in her own house and why should she have to when it’s not _her_ fault that his TA keeps on being half-naked with her windows open?

She crosses her arms over her chest defensively. “Hey, instead of looking at me how about you go to your TA and ask her why she keeps on putting these midnight shows, alright?” She says before she can stop herself, and Cole’s face drops even more.

“Christ, how many times has this _happened_?”

“Look, I—”

He brings both his hands up and waves them across his face, frantically trying to stop her from saying what she was going to. “Nope! Never mind. Don’t want to hear it.” He sighs in defeat, the expression on his face almost comical with misery. “How am I going to be able to focus after—after seeing… _that_ , and after finding out that my best friend’s been creeping on my freaking TA?”

“Serves you right for calling me last-minute.”

Cole just ignores her and continues on. “Look, Sam.  This is—this is not okay. I mean, _spying_?” He asks incredulously. “You could at least go make yourself known and ask for her number or something.”

He pauses, considering, and Sameen can practically see the gears turning in Cole’s head and she does _not_ like where this conversation is about to head. “…you want me to get that for you? Because I can.”

“Stop talking. Right now. Or you can sleep on the street.”


End file.
